As he hit the trail in Iowa this week in an attempt to save his struggling campaign for president, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie once again spoke out against the Black Lives Matter movement and President Obama, blaming the two for inspiring both peaceful demonstrations and violence across the country.
When asked Thursday morning for his thoughts on the recent student protests for racial justice at Yale, the University of Missouri, and other colleges, Christie called the demonstrations “ a product of the president’s own unwillingness and inability to bring people together.”
“The lawlessness that the president has allowed to exist in this country just absolutely strips people of hope,” he added. “Our administration would stand for the idea that justice is not just a word, but it’s a way of life. Laws will be applied evenly, fairly, and without bias to everyone.”
Christie made similar remarks during this week’s GOP debate. Though the moderators had asked him to name one Democrat in Congress he admires and could work with, he ignored the question and instead said he is “disturbed” by all Democrats because, “They’re not standing behind our police officers in this country. They’re allowing lawlessness to reign in this country.”
He has repeated the line about “lawlessness” in many other interviews and stump speeches in recent weeks, boasting that he would refuse to meet with the Black Lives Matter movement, and echoing false claims from his more popular 2016 opponents — including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Dr. Ben Carson — that the movement advocates for violence against police.
Spokespeople for the movement have pushed back against these characterizations.
“Nothing about us affirming our own lives has anything to do with ’embracing and celebrating the murder of police officers,’” Black Lives Matter leader Johnetta “Netta” Elzie, told ThinkProgress in October.
Another leader, DeRay McKesson, added that the candidates merely want “to perpetuate lies about a movement focused on ending violence in order to garner attention.”
In defending the Black Lives Matter movement earlier this year, President Obama noted, “The reason that the organizers used the phrase ‘black lives matter’ was not because they were suggesting nobody else’s lives matter. What they were suggesting was, there is a specific problem that is happening in the African-American community that’s not happening in other communities. And that is a legitimate issue that we’ve got to address.”
Though under attack from candidates in the GOP, the movement has successfully pushed Democratic candidates to take the issues of racial justice, police reform, and mass incarceration more seriously, taking a message once heard only in the streets onto a national stage.